Police in Saudi Arabia detain woman seen on social media wearing miniskirt in public

SAUDI ARABIA -- (KTLA) -- Police in Saudi Arabia have detained a woman who featured in a social media video wearing a miniskirt and a crop-top as she strolled through a Saudi city, according to a Saudi police statement.

The woman, who has been questioned by Riyadh police, told them that “the viral videos were published by an account attributed to her without her knowledge,” according to the statement. The statement adds that the woman’s case has been referred to the general prosecution department in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.

On Sunday, the spokesperson for the Presidency of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice — also known as the religious police — said the group was monitoring the issue and taking the “necessary steps” to address a viral video depicting a “girl in offensive clothing.”

Saudi Arabia adheres to a strict interpretation of Islamic law. Women are expected to wear loose-fitting clothing, known as an abaya, and Saudi women are required to cover their hair.

The video showed the woman walking along an empty street in the historic town of Ushayqir, according to the police statement.

Local media have reported that Ushayqar officials have called on the provincial governor and police to take steps against the woman.

Ushayqir — a city in Saudi Arabia’s Najd province — is the birthplace of Wahhabism, the kingdom’s ultra-conservative school of Islamic thought.